I will try to keep this short and concise. Most of the plot is easily predictable given the clues and blatant foreshadowing. It was easy to piece together the most likely course of events. Although there were very few surprises and I really enjoyed the first two books more, this addition was pretty enjoyable.
About the first quarter of the book felt really slow. Most of the books felt like it was the start of a new series rather than a continuation. I missed a lot of humor from the first books, as well as a great portion of city building. There was a great sense of desperation and triumph in previous books. While there are dangerous encounters here, they lack a sense of dread for me. Perhaps it is just my mindset going in.
The phrase “Where to next” is used way too often and could just be written out all together.
My biggest concern is the goblin persona. Especially regarding the Oren’s goblin mate and consequential offspring. It made me extremely uncomfortable. I am not against the idea of a player and a NPC having a type of child. It was more the way Oren was handling it that threw me off. The constant tearing between his human and goblin personality is a good plot device but it unsettles me.
The narrators as always were spectacular. Jeff Hays is one of my favorites and being supported by Winkel and Ellicott made the book rather enjoyable. The sound effects later in the book were pleasing and greatly contributed to the atmosphere of the events that were unfolding.
The one voice I don’t like is Rastia. Our feline spy isn’t a constant character in the book but appears often enough that I had to mention this. Her uh’s and um’s and stuttering was extremely annoying and I nearly had to skip through it. If it wasn’t for that I would have made the performance 5 stars. The predictability also prevented me from giving a 5 star rating
TL;DR A great addition to the series even if predictable. Impressive battles and solutions to problems as well as moral dilemmas that fall into a gray area. The production of Soundbooth Theatre strikes again and is astounding as always.